Chattanooga has a new coffee company. Only it’s not your ordinary, run-of-the-mill coffee. Mad Priest Coffee aims to make a great cuppa while almost exclusively hiring refugees.
The company launched its Kickstarter June 1 to coincide with Refugee Awareness Month. Though starting strictly as a wholesale provider, Mad Priest Coffee has plans to expand into a brick and mortar café.
During a free coffee event at City Hall in Chattanooga on Monday, June 20 in recognition of World Refugee Day, owner Michael Rice said, “We want to use business as a means to implement a solution to one of the most serious issues in our world today.
There are more displaced people today than ever before; 20 million of them are refugees, and half of them are under the age of 18. Something has to be done.”
The company’s Kickstarter will enable it to upgrade its roaster and hire their first refugee employee. Learn more at www.madpriestcoffee.com.